The Gift Bag Chronicles: A Novel

by Hilary De Vries

On generating the perfect party in If celebrities don’t walk your red carpet, you don’t exist.If you don’t make Page Six, you don’t exist.To get ten celebrities to show up, invite four hundred. And send a car.Publicity is the only job you can do perfectly and still fail.And the gift bag totally matters. As the newly promoted head of event planning for one of L.A.’s top publicity firms, Alex Davidson spends her days making decisions of utmost Grey Goose or Belvedere? MAC or Stila? Queen Latifah or Chloë Sevigny? And though her boyfriend, agency president Charles Evers, lives on the other coast, she could be doing worse. But leave it to her mother to point out the After one failed, childless marriage, Alex is the “career divorcée” and the antithesis of her sister, the perfect stay-at-home mom. And there’s no spin in the world that can cover up the growing rift between Alex and Charles.From dealing with outrageously self-important clients and holier-than-thou C-listers to trying to make sense of her growing attraction to a man who is not her boyfriend but her best friend, Alex feels as if she’s about one Red Bull shy of a meltdown. With her professional future hanging in the balance, she has the biggest party of the season to pull off. And the real question Will the gift bags measure up?From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit

209 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable beach read!
Lots of Hollywood name dropping, but gives you a look into the party planning side of being a publicist.
I enjoyed hearing more about the Davidson family and really liked them more in this book than in “So 5 Minutes Ago”.
I am definitely interested to see what Alex does next though!

[Mary Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was ok. I started it because I found it tucked away on my bookshelf and had no recollection of reading it before. I am not into the Hollywood/glamour/follow the celebrities kind of thing so it wasn’t really my cup of tea.

[Emilayday Adamcyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light and breezy novel about nothing. Great palate cleanser after a serious read.

[Susan Beamon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every now and then you must read something totally frivolous. The world is full of noise and everybody wants a piece of your time, body, money or brain. It's nice, even needful, to take a book vacation. Here is a great one.
Alex is a publicist, an event planner in Hollywood. She has a boyfriend, but after three years shouldn't he be more than that? Maybe Charles just wants to be engaged to be engaged so he can run around. Alex doesn't want to think that, but he does seem to like things where they are.
Party season goes all year long, but there are times when there are more and times when there are fewer. Gift bags and sponsors are the high point of a party. Guest lists and host lists can make or break a party. Alex is good at her job. Her parties are successful. But she has a slacker maybe painting her apartment and her mother is on her case and Charles won't commit.
I totally enjoyed this frothy little story. You will too.

[Ally · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just got finished listening to this book. It was ok overall, I didnt really fall in love with any of the characters and I did not think that they were interesting people. Alex was just plain and not very interesting, Charles was just some guy that we don't really know much about...the same can be said about most of the characters. Overall, I felt that this book was a lot of fluff and not much more.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I am missing next week's meeting, here are my thoughts. This book was perfect for what we were looking for this month - a light and fluffy quick read! So, the character development was pretty non-existent and it was super-predictable, but I really didn't care :-)

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really cute, quick read. I enjoyed it. Likeable characters.

[Loren · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't even finished it. Sooo boring!

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is light and fluffy, which is fine if you like that type of book - but I do not. There was no character development and the ending was nothing special.

[Pooch · Rating 2 out of 5]

p. 26 "...being older, more palpable versions of themselves. Like Siamese cats that finally stopped screaming because they just didn't have the energy anymore."

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was totally not the light, fun read I expected. Instead, the author turns gift bags into total baggage, and I felt stressed for the main character. Plus I couldn't stand her!

[Joyce Balls-berry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok I got mid-way through the book and couldn't finish it. I flipped ahead to the end but wasn't as pleased with the sequel as I was with the first book.

[Meaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it! red carpet publicity + romance = great chick lit!